My neighbour has a cat called Stevie. Stevie hangs out with us a lot and we look after him when my neighbour is away.
Yesterday we found Stevie very unwell in our garden. We took him to the neighbour and she immediately rushed him to the vet.
She mentioned the vet was 200 dollars which was a big unexpected expense for her. Her son’s birthday is on Monday and she won’t be able to do anything for his birthday now.
My wife and I are fortunate enough for 200 dollars to not be a lot of money for us and we want to help, but I’m unsure how.
One option would be that we leave her a little card with 100 dollars and write that we wanted to help because we care about Stevie too.
Another idea is we ask her to do some gardening for us (that’s her job, and we’re too busy to do it ourselves right now).
I don’t want her to feel patronised or awkward about any of this… Happy to take insights.
I think she would appreciate the $100 because you care about Stevie too. It’s very touching and when you phrase it that way it’s like you’re helping the cat not her. Not patronizing at all
100% agree with this one. Just drop it in a card with a note. The stress removed by having a birthday sorted is going to heavily outweigh the pride issue.
I would skip the card and note. Makes it more formal, thus increasing the social weight.